Vegas 2 Reno (the long way!)
Story and photos by Charlene Bower and Jon Crowley

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[ WEDNESDAY CONTINGENCY ] [ THURSDAY RACE DAY 1 ]
[ FRIDAY RACE DAY 2 ] [ SATURDAY RACE DAY 3 ]

Thursday 8/20/09 Race Day #1
Beatty to Tonopah - 332 miles

Two 4400 cars beat the heat and the odds and crossed the finish line on the first day of the BITD Vegas to Reno race! The 4471 team of Jeff Knoll was the first to cross and the Kevin Sacalas 4435 team crossed with only about 15 minutes left on the clock.

This was a grueling task for all the teams to accomplish today! There wasn’t one team that didn’t have a story of how they had to overcome issue after issue on their rig. And like true rock crawlers at heart…not one of them wants to give up! They are here and they are going to fabricate, duct tape, JB weld and zip tie everything and anything to hit that starting line again today! My hats off to all the teams and pit crews!

My day? The morning started out early…around 4:45am to be exact and we haven’t stopped since. We headed from Henderson to the starting line in Beatty. I jumped into Chase Truck Main so that I could get to as many places as possible. We headed out the 95 and within about an hour my expectations of the day were fulfilled…I lost all internet access and the phone became so sketchy that texting was about all that was going to happen.

The staging area for the start was a buzz with a ton of anxious drivers. Each car pulling up to the line, one by one, for their :30 interval start. It was dang hot by the time the 4400’s pulled up to the line at 10:57am…and they were off. One by one they crossed through the Red Bull Arch and began the adventure of a lifetime!

Who stopped first? I think that award goes to Travis Carpenter and Dan Trout 4405 who only made it to around RM5 when they had fuel pump issues. What we didn’t know was this was going to be a story we would hear over and over and over again. The fuel vapor locking problem was not something that was isolated to this group of cars…it was a wide spread problem because of the heat.

I think we did circles all day…but then that is what chasing is all about! It was fun seeing the cars coming into the pits and talking to the teams that were there to get the info.

I finally landed at Adventure Camp around 5pm. The whole town of Tonopah was loaded with tons and tons of RV’s, trucks and trailers…and someone said something about a bad economy? Finally able to catch internet access for a few minutes, I was teased with trying to upload pictures and interviews, but that sure didn’t work out!

Around this time we were also hot on the tail of Jeff Knolls car 4471 as he got closer and closer and closer to the finish line pit by pit. Soon they were crossing the finish line just as we were at the drivers meeting. YAHOO! That put them into the holding area while the final preparations were being made to take care of the car in the one hour work area. Close to a scene that we would see in NASCAR there were about 15 guys in the BFG pit that cranked on the car and got it race ready for tomorrows start line.

It was a late night…the work area closed at midnight, and all vehicles had to be in the compound by midnight. Then onto upload pictures of the day, and try and recap ;-)

Tomorrow is more of the same! As Doc put it “Well, we completed one race today. Now two more to go!”

Day One Finishing Recap:
4403: Carner: Blue Torch: Had a small engine fire in pit 3, don’t know cause of end of day
4405: Carpenter: Lost fuel pump MM5
4406: Usnick: Shorted their day with a blown up rear end
4411: Bulloch: Lost all tranny fluid when lost plug but ended day with a torn up front end
4435: Sacalas: Crossed the finish line! Had a list of issue, biggest was heim joints
4454: Cole: Fuel pump issues ended day
4455: Thompson/Mooneyham: Hole in the radiator…don’t know current status
4461: Napier: Fuel pump issues ended day
4464: Cowbell: Fuel pump issues and was changing a tranny at 11:30pm last night
4471: Knoll: Crossed the Finish Line! Minor details
4488: Watson: ??don’t know??

I’m trying to get updates on the other classes as well during the day, but honestly, you are in a better seat than I am to know the standings and positioning with www.trackinginternational.com. I am just a rabbit in the desert jumping around trying to get the gossip on “Why” they are where they are. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t….

~ Charlene ~